#SERBIA: Live Blog of Pesma za Evroviziju ’24 from 20.00,gmt/21.00CET

Serbia decides tonight who will succeed Luke Black as their representative in the Eurovision Song Contest. Sixteen acts will compete for the Golden Ticket, some of whom have done their stuff for Serbia before. Can tonight’s winner mount a challenge in Malmö and achieve Serbia’s second win?

We at Eurovision Ireland will be blogging all the action as it happens. You can watch the action HERE. All times below are in GMT.

23.22 – Congratulations to Teya Dora. Her songs was liked across the board. That’s it from the blog for tonight. Could she do well? Tell us what you think. And good night.

23.21 – We have a winner! It’s Teya Dora!

23.20 – 12 goes to Krestvica

23.20 – 10 to Teya Dora. She takes the lead

23.20 – 7 to Zorja. 8 to Konstrakta

23.19 – 5 to Džordži. 6 to Bojan & David

23.19 – 3 to Dusan Kurtic. 4 to Zejla

23.17 – With the public votes, 1 to M>IRA. 2 to Keni Nije Mrtav

23.16 – This gets converted, thus

23.15 – After the jury vote, this is how things stand

23.15 – The next 12, from a certain Marija Serifovic, goes to Teya Dora

23.14 – The next 12 goes to Hristina

23.12 – The next 12 goes to Breskvica

23.11 – The next 12 goes to Teya Dora

23.08 – The jurors are giving their votes. The first maximum goes to song 16 from Dušan Kurtić

23.07 – We’re back. Could be results time

23.02 – Ad break time. Stay tuned.

22.59 – We get to see Malmö now. We’re off there in May. And one of the 16 acts will be too. We see extracts of previous Malmö contests. Linda Martin, Extra Nena. Emmelie de Forest. Ahh, memories.

22.57 – We’ve had a chat with Željko. He is Serbia’s Mr Eurovision.

22.53 – He now takes us into Adio, performed in the contest by Montenegro’s Knez

22.50 – Now we get the sublime Lejla performed this time by Željko

22.49 – Onto Oro, the home song when the contest was in Belgrade. Željko co-hosted.

22.45 – Back to the studio and we get Nije ljubav stvar with an orchestra

22.41 – Back to Lane moje in Istanbul in 2004. We also touch on Nije ljubav stvar in 2012

22.40 – Phone lines are closed. More chatter now

22.36 – We’re getting another recap, if you were wondering. There are about two minutes left to vote.

22.32 – We’ve had the first recap, and now it’s back to the Green Room for general chat and banter.

22.23 – The public lines are now open. There are 15 minutes to vote

22.21 – We meet the jury, whose votes will make up 50% of the final score.

22.19 – The final Green Room chat over, we should know the winner sometime in the next 80 minutes.

22.11 – And that’s it. There’s a winner in there somewhere. But first, a chat in the Green Room.

22.10 – Dušan has an interesting voice. It’s almost Turkish in timbre. The beat for this is slightly syncopated, almost Latino. He’s polished in the delivery and the two dancers he has fit in well. It isnt’ quite enough to grab you as much as some of the others. But it’s not the worst thing we’ve heard tonight.

22.07 – Finally, we get song 16. Dušan Kurtić sings Zbog tebe živim

22.06 – Lena starts almost by speaking. It’s definitely got drama about it. The mood is more mellow-drama than serious though. There are a number of musicians on stage with her, and a big full moon backdrop. It’s maybe more mature than some of the others we’ve seen tonight, so no really banger here. Still, for those who like sophistication, this is for you. I suspect it won’t win.

22.03 – Song 15 is Zovi me Lena. It’s sung by Lena Kovačević

22.02 – They start back to back with a mirrored panel between them. The black and pink outfits are definitely different. This is another dance tune with slightly ethnic motifs going on in the backing track. They share the vocals well and this generally hangs together nicely. And we get a key change. To be fair, it was always going to come. Another decent song that could stand a chance.

21.59 – Song 14 is No No No from Bojana and David. She’s dine JESC in the past.

21.58 – Is this In corpore sano all over again? No. It’s more upbeat with almost an 80s sound to it. And this time she’s kneading bread rather than washing her hands. And that’s no euphemism. She performs this in her usual deadpan stylee, And she speaks part of her song, as if she’s singing to her dough. It’s typical Konstrakta – a little bonkers, but designed to make you think. About bread presumably.

21.55 – Song 13 is Novo, bolje by Konstrakta

21.54 – We’re back. The last four songs will follow

21.48 – Chat over, and ad break time. Don’t go away. Four songs still to go. Plus the shenanigans of voting.

21.38 – Time for more Green Room chat. Stay tuned.

21.37 – More seriousness here, but in a more upbeat way. Zejna starts in a long white duvet, which she soon discards for a black and gold outfit. Her dancers are in red. This is really good. There are eastern tinges to the backing track. There’s a kickass dance routine. There’s also a good voice coming from Zejna. This is the best thing so far. It’s, to coin the parlance, a banger. And would be a good winner.

21.34 – Song 12 is Najbolja by Zejna

21.33 – Zorja is alone under a single spotlight as this opens. She’s in a long black dress. There are stage hands with her, holding mirrors. The stage hands are entirely in black. The song builds on its serious nature and Zorja mixes in some nicely soaring vocals too. This potentially difficult notes that she manages with ease. Even a really tough one near the end. Also towards the end she discards her wig and part of her dress.

21.31 – Song 11 comes from Zorja. It’s called Lik u ogledalu

21.30 – If young bands are your thing, then you’re in luck. A trio singing an upbeat song. This is edgy for Pesma standards. Catchy too. Foot-tappingly so. Very good for its genre. But I know Serbia and it might not be their thing to send to Sweden.

21.27 – Song 10 is Dijamanti from Keni nije mrtav

21.26 – Milan has a ballad. And a backdrop of a waterfall. More heartfelt emotions here, and it’s a decent attempt actually. For the second chorus, he’s joined by a dancer, presumably his love. She cavorts as he sings, just to make things a little bit better. I like this. It’s not a winner – maybe an album track. But a good one nonetheless.

21.22 – Onto song nice. It’s from Milan Bujaković. He sings Moje tvoje

21.20 – Green Room chat over.

21.11 – Eight down, so more chatter and over to the Green Room.

21.10 – Nemanja has a voice not unlike Mr Joksimovic. His song is very Balkan in vibe too. Formulaic, but also quite powerful. He makes use of some props – large windows – during the song. This does build nicely, and there’s an instrumental break featuring an electric guitar. That’s before the key change. It reminds me of other Balkan song of this genre. They can do well.

21.07 – Song eight is Jutra bez tebe by Nemanja Radošević

21.06 – Another moody performer and singing a song with attitude. Where else do we get things with attitude, eh? This is disco-friendly and there’s a glitter-ball to prove so. She has dancers too. The verse perhaps isn’t as good as the chorus, but a decent dance version would remedy that. The bridge is sung in English – the first we’ve heard of that language tonight. This might be too generic, but it wouldn’t be an unpopular winner.

21.03 – Song seven comes from M.IRA. It’s called Percepcija

21.02 – Marko’s staging is a chat show set. Him on a sofa and a host on a chair. This has a beat – almost an Afro beat. It’s grabbing the attention pretty early on. For verse two he’s at a barber’s and then dons a sparkly red jacket. I like this. It gets you in, and the hook is there which means it could do something.

20.59 – Song six is called Dno by Marko Mandić

20.58 – Hristina looks serious. And she has a matching song. And a wind machine. The song is a heartfelt affair and demonstrates her pretty decent voice. It’s beautiful, and topped by Hristina being on wires and getting hoisted up.

20.55 – Song five comes from Hristina. It’s called Bedem

20.54 – We’re back. I told you not to go away.

20.47 – Ad break time now. Don’t go away.

20.45 – As you can imagine, chatting to the first four acts in the Green Room can go on a bit.

20.37 – A slight pause now. Four down, 12 to go, don’t forget.

20.36 – Teya gives us a moody number. She starts the song reclining like a mermaid, before she stands to reveal more trousers. This is really ethereal , set off nicely with dry ice. There are more choral backing sounds to it too. However, it takes a whole to get going, and there’s a pause that people might think is the end. Once they get past that we get a soaring final chorus. Not bad at all.

20.33 – Song four is by Teya Dora and is called Ramonda

20.32 – A more Balkan sounding song comes next. Breskvica is in a long white dress and stood on a box. There are pipes in the orchestration, played by an Albert Einstein look-a-like. This is more my sort of thing and gives us Serbia and drama in equal measure. There are also male-voice choir-style voices thrown into the mix too. Very good.

20.29 – Song three is called Gnezdo orlovo by Breskvica

20.28 – Džordži is in a suit that mixes greys and blacks. There’s a decent verse and a rockier chorus. His band pals on stage are all ladies but it’s no Addicted to love by Robert Palmer. Maybe not a bad song but could do with beefing up a bit. Still, he might get a younger lady vote.

20.26 – Song two comes from Džordži. He sings Luna Park

20.25 – A set of windows greets us, behind Iva who’s in a shredded trouser-based outfit. She has some funky backing singers with her once the beat kicks in. It’s got quite a hypnotic beat going for it, and it would suit a dark Eurovision disco. Having said that, it bounces along OK but doesn’t really go anywhere.

20.20 – And onto song one. It’s Dom from Iva Lorens.

20.19 – It’s the usual banter between the two hosts on stage and the two in the Green Room. The wonner takes it all apparently.

20.18 – We have sixteen finalists tonight, so get yourselves comfortable.

20.13 – Sweden has hosted the contest a few times, so we get a further retrospective, this time of Sweden through the years.

20.12 – Of course, it’s our hosts for the evening.

20.10 – Nothing says Eurovision better than singers with a gyrating Napoleon in the background

20.05 – Our hosts appear to be virtual, for now at least. And now we get a retrospective of a certain contest in Brighton in 1974. Can you remember who won?

20.02 – It’s 20 years since the sublime Lane moje. Željko Joksimović is in the house.

20.02 – We get a quick retrospective of the years for Serbia and Serbia & Montenegro.

Author: John Stanton

Source: Eurovision Ireland